Make mine a double.

That’s how I want my Whataburger. I’m only going to eat half of it, but I need the right ratio of bread to meat and that means a double cheeseburger for me.

And come Monday, it’s about 200 miles closer when the first area Whataburger opens at 11 a.m. at 176 Goodman Road East in Southaven.

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More will come. We’ll have several here by the end of 2023.

Will we end our Whataburger lunches when we head down to Florida? I don’t know that, but I do know this: Without having to get my Whataburger fix in Ridgeland on the way to New Orleans, I’m definitely powering through and showing up there hungry, not burger-stuffed. Maybe I’ll finally make Friday lunch at Galatoire’s, where I might order a double something else and if so, I’ll drink all of it; don’t worry about it going to waste.

It’s been more than 30 years since Whataburger left Memphis. There was one on Frayser Boulevard and another on Millbranch Road, both in iconic A-frames that are sadly a relic of the past; only the bright orange remains in today’s buildings.

Local media personality Earle Farrell moved to Memphis in 1978 to work for WREG Channel 3, and he went to both locations.

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“I usually went to the one on Millbranch, but then I don’t know, after four or five years, it just closed,” Farrell said.

For a man who started eating Whataburgers in the second location of the fast-food chain that started in Corpus Christi, Texas, it was a blow.

“I don’t even think there was a warning,” he said. “We just went one day and it was closed.”

Farrell grew up in Odessa, Texas, and he spent his allowance on Whataburgers.

“Maybe everybody else bought toys or whatever, but I bought Whataburgers, and they were probably 35, maybe 40 cents, maybe not even that much. I lived about two miles away and we’d ride our bikes there. It was next to a municipal golf course and a bowling alley, so we had a little cultural center right there,” he said. 

The burgers were made to order, and they still are.

“We always stop in Birmingham on our way to Florida, or in Mississippi or maybe in Shreveport for the first stop if we’re headed to Texas,” Farrell said. “It’s how we map out our drives — can’t go that way if there’s not a Whataburger. And last time we were in Birmingham, we had to wait to place our order. They won’t take your order if the grill is full because they’re still cooking to order.”

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Whether he’ll wait in line in Southaven on Monday is undecided. Maybe, maybe not. But he knows he’ll order a Whataburger with everything, add mayo, just like he does every time he goes.

“My son and I fly into Dallas every year for a rodeo, and there’s a Whataburger in the terminal,” Farrell said. “We might get there at 5 a.m., but whenever it is, we head to Whataburger and we get burgers before we even get our bags.”

Jim Lord is another Texas native, the owner of Mac Daddy Food Truck. He is such a Whataburger fan that in 2010, he was named a top Whataburger fan.

“It was the Whataburger Biggest Fan competition, and I made the top 20,” Lord said. “That was out of tens of thousands of people.”

The contest was simple: Put a photo of yourself showing your love of Whataburger on Facebook, and let the people vote.

“I didn’t know about it until I made a trip to Texas for something and I was in a Whataburger, saw it and that I thought, cool, I’ll hop in on this. It was about halfway over by then, but everyone I knew knows how much I love Whataburger, so they voted for me and I made the top 20,” Lord said. 

But there was no prize.

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“I figured maybe I’d get a $20 gift certificate or something for making the top 20, but no. I was bummed but then I thought, well, fame and glory.”

He won’t be in line on Monday.

“I’m not someone who camps out for the next ‘Stars Wars’ movie either, even though I’m excited about it. I know it will always be here next week, and I don’t love crowds or waiting in line,” Lord said.

As for his order, well, he obviously has long thought that Whataburger was Burger King, because he likes to have it his way.

“For breakfast, I’ll probably get a couple of taquitos, particularly if they have the chorizo ones here,” he said. “They’re basically breakfast burritos, but I might get a breakfast burger, which is sort of like a junior burger with hash browns and an egg on it.

“You’ve always been able to get a burger in the morning and I used to order a regular-size one like this before it ever went on the menu,” he said. “So I’m not saying I created it, but I am saying, well, I might’ve been first.”

His regular burger order is a double with everything, add mayo and grilled jalapenos, which is what he’ll mostly order when the Jim Lord Whataburger opens in Cordova.

“I’ll drive past the one on Germantown Parkway and Macon (Road) about six times a day,” he said. “We’re going to name it that.”

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If absence makes the heart grow fonder, what will Whataburger’s presence do? 

So is a Whataburger that good? Come on. If you can taste the burger of your youth a time or two a year, the answer is yes.

It’s similar to a Tops cheeseburger — thin patty, grilled on the flat top, cooked to order so it’s fresh. It’s a top-notch fast-food burger, probably not as good as Freddy’s (mad love) but better than the rest.

And it tastes like I’m 16 and driving my first car, which tastes like freedom and goes down easy. The skinny fries are good and the tangy ketchup has a cult following; don’t try to tell the true believers that they can buy it at the grocery store, because they’ll tell you it’s not the same.

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But will I drive to Southaven for a Whataburger? Sure, once, but I won’t make the trip regularly; I don’t want to turn into my arsonous daughter. She moved to Texas five years ago, after a lifetime of loving Whataburgers on beach vacations, and ate a lot of them.

Her response to my Facebook question about Whataburger coming? 

“The ketchup is literally the only reason I haven’t burned them down.”

Farrell knows there’s a possibility having Whataburgers close could make them humdrum, but he doesn’t think it will for him.

“I hope I don’t start to take them for granted, but I don’t really think I will,” he said. “I didn’t when I moved here and I still get them every chance I get.”